Rock `N` Roll Falls In Radio Survey

The results of Arbitron`s fall radio survey seem to indicate that if this isn`t the case, there is at least a trend toward more mellow forms of music.

Hard rock and teen-oriented stations generally lost audience in Arbitron`s Sept. 21 to Dec. 13 book, the advances for which were released Tuesday. At the same time, softer music outlets mostly improved their performances over the summer audience-measurement period.

Urban contemporary (primarily black-artist music) WHQT (FM 105.1) continues to lead the overall pack with an average 8.0 percent share of the audience age 12 and over, but its rating -- in radio jargon, audience share is referred to as rating -- slipped from the 8.3 it had in the summer book.

Meanwhile, all four of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market`s rockers -- WHYI (FM 100.7), WSHE (FM 103.5), WZTA (FM 94.9) and WGTR (FM 97.3) -- suffered substantial audience declines. For WGTR, it was the fourth down book in a row, which usually is a precursor to a housecleaning.

Only WPOW-FM (FM 96.5) was able to buck this trend, with an increase in audience of about 15 percent for its youth-aimed sounds.

The audience the rock stations lost seemed to drift toward stations offering alternative forms of music.

More importantly, Majic decreased the gap between itself and No. 1 Hot 105 among the important 25-to-54-year-old audience -- dubbed ``the money demographic`` because it is the most coveted by advertisers -- from more than two points in the summer to just more than a half-point during the fall measuring period. Joy 107 also had a substantial improvement among these listeners to leap to third in the demographic.

The move away from rock was apparent in the performances of other music- oriented stations.

The easy-listening music of WLYF (FM 101.5) was up marginally and maintained the station`s second-place ranking among all listeners.

One of the most dramatic percentage increases belonged to WXDJ (FM 95.7), whose new age/light jazz sound was up almost 50 percent. Also, classic music WTMI (FM 93.1) had one of its best books in years and country-western specialist WKIS (FM 99.9) increased about 25 percent.

Part of WKIS` increase might be traceable to the fact that the monopoly on country sounds it and sister station WQAM (AM 560) have puts WKIS in line to inherit all the defectors when WQAM switches to sports, which is now about half the time.

Another intriguing development during the fall was an apparent movement away from Spanish-language radio. For the first time in memory, there was no Spanish-language station among the marketwide Top 5, and only two in the Top 10, No. 8 WQBA (AM 1140) and No. 9 WCMQ (FM 92.1).

News/talk also had a drab book. WIOD (AM 610) was up marginally to finish third overall and fourth in the 25-to-54 breakout, but WINZ (AM 940) dipped slightly and WNWS (AM 790) plunged about 20 percent.

The book didn`t bring good news to Stan Major, who has been auditioning for WIOD`s afternoon slot, which was vacated when Steve Kane quit to take a job in New York. Major was down slightly from Kane`s summer rating. In light of this, it wouldn`t be surprising if WIOD looked elsewhere for a host.

Dick Farrell, who once worked at Palm Beach`s WJNO, also seems to be failing his WIOD evening audition. The shrill right-winger produced ratings off about 25 percent from baseball games during the summer. WIOD management made it clear when it brought in Farrell that his performance would be measured against baseball before a decision is made in the spring on whether to stick with local talk in the evening and relegate Yankees baseball to weekends only.

WFTL`s (AM 1400) move into news/talk isn`t faring well, either. The station, which abandoned the big band sound about a year ago because advertisers were reluctant to buy the older audience it attracted, lost more than half its listeners from summer to fall. In addition to moving into an already crowded field, WFTL is hindered by a weak signal which generally doesn`t extend into the Dade half of the market.

The ``advances`` released yesterday do not include hour-by-hour rating breakouts, which will be in the full book due later this week. Ratings for the Palm Beach market also are due within a few days.